Michelle Mone’s husband Doug Barrowman says family ‘treated as punchbag’ in PPE row

Lady Mone has admitted she did not tell the truth when she denied having connections to the company

Baroness Michelle Mone and her husband, Doug Barrowman, were interviewed on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg (Picture: BBC/Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg/PA Wire)

The husband of Baroness Mone said his family have been “treated as a punchbag” for the “lamentable failures” by ministers when procuring personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic.

In a statement published by Lady Mone on X, formerly Twitter, Doug Barrowman said it “suits the agenda” of the UK Government to “scapegoat” him and his wife for their part in supplying items designed to protect against coronavirus infection through the firm PPE Medpro.

Lady Mone has admitted she lied when she denied having connections to the company, a consortium led by her husband, which was awarded contracts worth more than £200 million to supply gowns and face masks.

The lingerie entrepreneur stands to benefit from its £60 million in profits that have been placed into a trust by her husband.

Mr Barrowman said he and his family have been “treated as a punchbag by the media for the past three years” and have “received death threats and a constant torrent of online and other abuse” as a result of the row.

In his statement of more than 1,000 words published on Monday, Mr Barrowman looked to turn the debate on to what he said were failures by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) during its PPE procurement.

“Michelle and I are being hung out to dry to distract attention from Government incompetence in how it handled PPE procurement at time of national emergency,” Mr Barowman said.

“Medpro supplied the Govt with 1.5 per cent of PPE spend (£202 million) against a total of £13.1 billion and yet the media or Government refuses to focus on the other 98.5 per cent of PPE supplied; much of which was defective or never used and/or supplied in identical circumstances to the Medpro contracts.”

He branded it “simply unacceptable” that the UK Covid-19 Inquiry is not scheduled to review pandemic PPE procurement until 2025 – after a general election expected to take place this year.

“The stark reality is that DHSC has brought this claim against Medpro at a time of increased scrutiny of how it overspent by so much and when questions were being asked as to why the Government was writing off £9 billion of PPE out of the £13.1 billion spent,” he said.

“How on Earth did the UK Government manage to purchase five years of PPE when it was only supposed to build up four months of stock?

“Yet no-one has been held accountable at DHSC. Its head, Sir Chris Wormald (permanent secretary to the DHSC) should resign, since ultimately he signed off all the PPE contracts.

“So rather than focus on the real story here, it suits the agenda of the Government and their media spin doctors to scapegoat my wife and I for their own lamentable failures.”

The Government last December issued breach of contract proceedings against PPE Medpro over the 2020 deal on the supply of sterile gowns.

The firm is defending the legal action.

The company is also being investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA) into suspected criminal offences in the procurement of PPE contracts.

Mr Barrowman repeated his claim that ministers were “using the arm of the NCA to threaten criminal proceedings unless we settle” the civil case.

He said it was “curious” that “out of 176 disputed contracts to a value of £2.7 billion, no-one else, other than Medpro is being litigated against”, and he said the firm is “confident of success” in the legal dispute.

A DHSC spokesman said: “We do not comment on ongoing legal cases.”